


Unexpected Reactions

by Drakochan



Category: Exalted, Exalted: The New Emperor
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-03
Updated: 2014-05-03
Packaged: 2018-01-21 18:12:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1559480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drakochan/pseuds/Drakochan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Asexual Cenaerys is somewhat alarmed by his body's reaction when his partner Arrin and he are together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected Reactions

It had started out normally enough; sitting together with Arrin, the balcony to his room in the Mnemon house. It was a clear night, so the canvas awning was retracted, revealing the muted light of stars. Arrin was tucked into the crook beneath Cenaerys's arm, short hair tickling along his neck and jaw line, a leg draped over his own, an arm carelessly across his waist. In moments like these, she was alarmingly delicate, nothing like the fierce façade she wore in the world. Her voice, soft in the moonlight, telling him of her day, and asking him about the stars, the constellations, about his own day.

So often now, it was merely a tale of bureaucracy. In the days following Xyashin's death, it became clear to Cenaerys that nobody quite knew what to do with him. At first, he'd taken it as punishment, but now… He saw the uncertainty in the Sidereals that he dealt with. The severity that hid the glances they cast to one another. In the end, they'd just told him to stay here, and keep out of trouble for now, in many more words, and far more flowery. He'd seen right through it; he'd done the same himself enough to be able to read the underlying ideas.

And then Arrin had turned, breaking his reverie of thought, distracted by the brush of lips against his neck, the tickle of breath as she whispered a question, sending a strange sensation down his spine. Almost unthinking, he turned, meeting her eyes, enraptured as always by the way they swirled with color and emotion, and she likewise, or so she had confessed, tracing the constellations in his own eyes.

Their lips had met, sending a sensation almost electric through his nerves, a long-fingered hand raising to cup her face, an unfamiliar desire to be closer, feel more… She'd let out a soft sound against his lips, a sound that stirred a heat in him, pulse rising. Cenaerys was acutely, uncomfortably aware of her body against his, of the warmth of her skin through her thin tunic and his even thinner silk chemise.

They'd kissed, sure. This sensation was new, and quite alarming, as pleasant as it was. He drew back, stammering an apology, feeling heat rush to his face, and excused himself with all the decorum he could muster, leaving Arrin leaning disheveled on the chaise, a little bewildered.

He fled, wandering the halls at a quick walk, hair and clothing fluttering behind him. Servants bowed as he passed, more or less unnoticed, a reflexive greeting mumbled to each one. He found himself outside of Bella's room, and the sounds of low conversation, the throaty, sensual laugh Bella reserved for seduction coming through the door, followed by the clink of wine glasses. Cenaerys pulled back his hand from knocking, brows creasing. No, this was absolutely not a good time… Particularly given his state of uncertainty…

Instead, he eventually found himself in the expansive garden that, ironically, sat below his balcony. Casting a single glance up, and finding the chaise empty, he crept along the path, finding his favorite place in the center of it, hedges that rose high around a small circle muting the world around him, leaving him alone with his thoughts.


End file.
